A Deafening Silence
05Dec. 09
It seems to me that, since the initial onslaught of propaganda and scaremongering against the H1N1 vaccine, there’s been very little media follow up from the anti-vaccination movement on the issue. Today, I think I may have figured out why.
You see, today was a day I’ve been looking forward to for a while. As an undergraduate science student studying pure maths and physics, I’ve always thought a mild case of autism could assist me in my studies — my cultural icons in the matter being, for the most part, antisocial recluses with histories of mental illness. So, with a trip overseas to Cambodia coming up I decided to go hell for leather, and booked myself in for three vaccinations, all on the same day. Typhoid, Hepatitis A, and the dreaded Hinny vaccine, jabbed into me over a total time period of about five minutes. Aw, yeah.
Sadly for my prospective career, I’m yet to notice any kind of onset of autism; as a consolation prize, however, I was talking to my doctor during all this about the public perception of the swine flu vaccine, and worries about side-effects and he brought to my attention an article he’d just been reading earlier that day in the Medical Observer (4/12/09 edition, for those of you playing at home).
The article reported on the findings of a Therapeutic Goods Administration report on the adverse reactions of the H1N1 vaccine. Now, keeping in mind that this vaccine had already been tested for safety and had jumped through the hoops required of any vaccine, you’d expect that if there really was a significant danger associated with the vaccine that it would show up in a study specifically commissioned to look for it. So, what did the study find?
So far, in Australia, approximately 3.75 million doses of H1N1 vaccine have been given. Out of that 3.75 million, a total of 654 suspected side-effects have been reported — remember that reporting on side-effects picks up on coincidental correlations as well as causal correlations. The most common reported side-effects were nausea, vomiting or diarrhoea, followed closely by headaches. Also reported less commonly were fatigue, fever, cough, runny nose, sore throat, irritation around the injection site, muscle pain and flu-like symptoms. A total of six reports of possible anaphylaxis were reported, though the TGA concluded that only four of those were likely to be related to the vaccine.
Some things you’ll notice that were completely absent from the list of reported side-effects are autism, heavy metal toxicity, Guillain-Barrè syndrome, and death. And given the numbers above, if you are one of the 3.75 million people who have thus far received the H1N1 vaccine, there’s a whopping great 0.0174% chance that you were one of the lucky few who might have had a side effect.
With numbers like that, it’s no wonder the anti-vaxxers are keeping their heads low…
Tags: h1n1, report, Richard Hughes, TGA, Vaccine
December 5th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
But did they look for microchips?
December 5th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Numbers and facts do not keep conspiracy theorists from saying their usual bullshit. However, whatever caused the anti-vaxxers to become quieter is a good thing.